Excerpt from --
Cheney Insists on Iraq Links to Al Qa'ida
(AP)
4-6-07
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,20867,21514518-2703,00.html
US VICE President ***** Cheney repeated his assertions of al Qa'ida links
to Saddam Hussein's Iraq as the US Defence Department released a report
citing more evidence that the pre-war government did not cooperate with
the terrorist group.
Mr Cheney contended that al-Qaeda was operating in Iraq before the March
2003 invasion led by US forces, and that terrorist Abu Musab al-Zarqawi
was leading the Iraqi branch of al-Qaeda. Others in al-Qaeda planned the
September 11, 2001, attacks.
"He took up residence there before we ever launched into Iraq, organised
the al-Qaeda operations inside Iraq before we even arrived on the scene
and then, of course, led the charge for Iraq until we killed him last
June," Mr Cheney told radio host Rush Limbaugh during an interview today.
"As I say, they were present before we invaded Iraq."
However, a declassified Pentagon report released today said interrogations
of the deposed Iraqi leader and two of his former aides, as well as seized
Iraqi documents, confirmed the terrorist organisation and the Saddam
government were not working together before the invasion.
The September 11 Commission's 2004 report also found no evidence of a
collaborative relationship between Saddam and Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda
network during that period.
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